quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent the title amendment with respect to h.r. 8 which is at the desk be agreed to. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to a period of morning business with

senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 6586 which is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 6586, an act to extend the application of certain space launch liability provisions through 2014. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. pryor: i further ask that the nelson-hutchison substitute amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and passed, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to this measure be printed at the appropriate place in the record as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent the energy committee be discharged from further

consideration of h.r. 6060 and the senate proceed to its consideration and consideration of calendar number 269, s. 302 en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report the measures en bloc. the clerk: h.r. 6060, an act to amend public law 106-392, and so forth, calendar number 269, s. 302, a bill to authorize the secretary of the interior to issue right-of-way permits for natural gas transmission pipeline, and so forth and for other purposes. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent the bills be read a third time and passed en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to

the bills be placed in the record at the appropriate place as if read. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. res. 628 submitted earlier today by senators landrieu and blunt. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 628, expressing the deep disappointment of the senate in the enactment by the russian government of a law-ending -- law ending intracountry adoptions of russian children and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. pryor: i further ask that the senate proceed to a voice vote on adoption of the resolution. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all in favor say aye. opposed. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the resolution is adopted.

mr. pryor: i further ask that the preamble be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to consideration of s. res. 629 which was submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 629 to authorize the production of records by the committee on armed services. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection the senate will proceed. mr. pryor: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate and any statements appear in the record as if read statements. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate

completes its business today it adjourn until 2:00 p.m. on tuesday, january 1, 2013, following the prayer and pledge, the journal be approved to date, the morning business be deemed expired and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, that following any leader remarks, the senate proceed to a period of morning business until 3:30 p.m. for debate only with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. pryor: mr. president, if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until

it's important that parents get into their heads and i think i have been in my head now. it's not the school's job to go and find books for your kids. it's not the school's job. [applause] it's your job, it's my job.

it's our job to find books for kids. your kids don't need another cell phone with her first cell phone. they need books. they really need books. [applause] the nice thing is books are free at the library. how cool is that? and books are available at stores like books and books in coral gables. is that where this? and they are available online. you should go to the bookstore. and i have to say. i don't sell books but i have a site called reid could have read this a good place to go. there's hundreds of books on there and they are of age categories and their only books that will turn your kids on, not to drugs, to reading. parents come up all the time and

say i can't get my kids reading. and i say, with all due respect, and you get them to the dinner table? you have to make it as a rule your house. we read in our house. we read in our house. that's the coolest thing because if your kids can't read well, if they can't read well, high school is going to be a lot tougher than it needs to be. whatever, science, history will all be harder. maybe you get to nap without reading and maybe not. if your kids can't read well, some of them will not get through high school. if your kids can't read well, choices and opportunities in life will be limited. they're not going to have as many choices. but the cool thing about looks, the great and terrific thing is there's so many really good books out there for them to read. there's a lot of books that will

absolutely blow the minds of your kid. you know, harry potter, terrific series. when the kids come and terrific illustrations. books about sports, fine. if you have boys, let them read anything. , looks, great, graphic novels, almanacs, cut books, share, why not. as long as they are reading because to get better at it. i'll go to schools and say who play soccer? who love soccer? the outcome of the. you better know? would play a lot. same with reading. he read more, get better at it. it gets easier. you read better books. you have something that you love. so i though the will to get that in your hands that notion we read in our house. it's really cool that your kids

see you reading. that's nice, but the most important thing that got to have books in their bedroom. i got to read the darn things. when jack was a, sue and i that's number -- the holidays are another good time, the three, four weeks they have. but they said you can read everyday. he said do i have to? assembly, unless you want to sleep in the garage. but we are going to find cool books for you. so we went out with us and percy jackson series, read: time. at the end of the summer, jack was a bright guy, but was not a big reader and a good-looking kid -- his mother must be very, very pretty. but by the end of the summer, he had read a dozen books. about nine of them he liked a lot in his reading skills have gone to remove. so he went from eight yourself or he didn't like to read two

when he took his sats, which they take, he got 800 reading, which is the highest score you can get. so that's what can happen. it's unimportant whether they get 800 or harvard or vanderbilt , the support they get through high school and they have options when they get out. so yeah, mitch, where are you? , now, we're going to shoot the breeze and awesome question. what happened with that movie, et cetera, et cetera. [applause] >> so i think you can also why we have a master storyteller a mischievous measure in the story that he tells. i think we need to create on this throughout the country.

we read in our house. i think that is one of the most brilliant taglines that i've heard in a long, long time. don't you agree? i think we should begin that as quickly as we can. and i read that cnn.calm piece that she wrote and i was really inspired by it as a bookseller because their missions are very similar to create the next generation of readers. you gave some tips to some parents, but is there a way to oil them down to three import things they can remember? we read in our house could be one. what other tips my parents get? >> is just kind of anything goes. if you go and read, you'll see a lot of parents. like i don't mind if my kid stays up later if they are reading. that's okay, yeah, they read till 11:00, so be it.

there's worse things to do in life than not. .. >> i think you can hold them through 11 and 12. that's when it gets tricky with boys. at least if they read well, there's hope. they may pick it up later. they may get distracted.

some don't, but a lot do. the key thing is they develop the ability to read pretty well. >> i also know through your work on this whole reading initiative that you have -- i know there's teachers out there as well, and that you have -- >> it's not the schools. >> exactly. [laughter] i know there's programs within the schools you acknowledged as being some that are really quite great. there happens to be -- i happened to see her walking in -- my 4th grade teacher is here, mrs. kay, now mrs. harris. when i was in school, they did something, and it dawned op me they don't do it anymore. when i was in elementary school, they had the library patrol. i had a button, and i was on patrol. talk about other programs. >> one of the programs i love is drop everything and read where for one period every day or

several days a week, the whom school just reads. everybody just -- the teachers including is a great one. the schools in washington, very successful about turning around inner city kids, and the kids in that school have to carry a book at all times. it's neat. funny you mention that. i did a reading at my home town, and my 2nd grade teacher was there. she's like 92 years old. i was signing books, and she said, james, your handwriting is still atrocious. [laughter] >> that's great. talk a little bit about where you see our culture going. you're doing -- >> oh, my god. >> i don't mean in general, but in terms of reading. are we creating a culture of readers, notary --

non-readers, where are we now? >> i think the worst thing that's happening is we're creating a culture where people don't listen. they don't listen to the other side. there's a quote -- i read an editorial in the "new york times" a couple weeks ago, and it had to do with morality's ability to behind -- bind and blind, and, you know, it binds people, you believe in, you know, you believe in whatever you believe in, abortion one way or the other or whatever you believe about entitlements or whatever you believe about global warming, but you're incapable of seeing the other side at all, that there might be any validity outside. you take that into congress, and if both sides just sit there, they won't bend or see the other side's point of view, nothing happens. the anger that comes out of that, i mean, a lot of people are just running around so angry

because they just have to -- well, this is what i think. this is -- there's no other way other than my way. >> it's funny, i think reading, particularly reading about other people's lives -- >> absolutely. >> creating tolerance as well. >> absolutely, absolutely. that's the great thing about books right now more than any other medium that we have. a television -- a television's getting better, interestingly, movies, i mean, it's a lot of the same, same, same hollywood, you know, cops are bad, mobsters are good, whatever. it's kind of crazy, but books are the one place where there's such a variety -- as you say, you can see other points of view. other ways of looking at the world. you know, what's really going on, i mean, there's a terrific book about afghanistan called "the forever war," and you read

that book, and you get it. you get it or at least you get a really good point of view of what's going on over there. >> yeah, no, i couldn't agree with you more. i also think that what is happening in terms of getting that selection, it's about, you know, most people don't realize there's hundreds of thousands of books printed each year, and you need guides in order to fund those books, and i'm curious to know what you think is and how the world of the library and the bookstore, how that plays into that, and how it's evolving. >> clearly, it's evolving -- there's going to be many more people reading on to be lets or whatever. that's a done deal. it happened. i think the really horrifying thing right now is it's happened so fast and nobody has taken responsibility for how do we make that transition in a

sensible way? how do we continue to get the kind of advice that we can get in bookstores, in libraries, how do we keep that alive? i'm doing an essay right now which has to do with who is going to save our books, who will save our libraries, our bookstores, who is going to be responsible for finding the authors who have created the great american books of the last hundred years or so and in this thing, it lists about 50 books. the light goes off in our heads, right, who is going to do that? is amazon going to do that? seriously, who is doing that? same thing with the internet. i mean, who -- if we chase all of the magazines and networks out of journalism ultimately, right now, a lot of these blogs and whatever, they are just picking stuff out of the news

stories. who pays for the journalists, who pays for the reporters? how does that happen? how do we get information? nobody's sort of taken that to the next level, the issues there. >> any answers that you might have thought about? >> i think a piece of it is i think the people at the head of this thing have to take responsibility. amazon, they really need to get in and take more responsibility for what happens to books in this country, and i think it would be nice -- i'd love to see the president, first lady, whatever -- i like that the first lady is out there, you know, reminding us that it's good to exercise and not overeat, which is a huge issue, but i'd like to see, you know, more in washington, who is protecting books? i mean, in europe, they do protect books. they protect bookstores and they protect libraries, and they protect books.

that's good. in germany in particular, netherlands, scandinavia. they really protect it because they know, you know, that's a basis of the culture and civilization. i don't know that that's happening here, and i'm not sure what's going to happen. i don't know that it's going to happen in this state. it could. it could. >> well, thank you for raising that. in france right now, they are actually giving grants to endangered book shops in order to keep going because they realize that the culture is transferred through books. >> the interesting thing here is it doesn't even come up. >> right. >> it just doesn't come up in discussion which is nuts. you know, i did a book with lisa markland, a popular writer from sweden, and i went over there, and for three days in stockholm, we did 50 interviews with

newspapers and magazines. you write a book here, you can't find a journalist here. is there a journalist here? okay, god bless you two. [laughter] interesting difference in the cultures. in sweden, 8 million people, her books sell over a million copies in a country with 8 million people. >> wow. amazing. >> well, along those lines, tell us about -- some of you in miami know there was a thing called world book night. mr. patterson is the co-chairperson with ann of the 2013 world book night. want to talk a little bit about that? >> yeah. this, as far as i know, started in england, and it's very effective in england bought the government got involved in addition to the book sellers, and it really got well-organized to the point where basically every kid in the country get money to go in and buy a book, and the bookstores sort of, you know, price them in a nice way.

this won't be as big yet, but i think we're giving away a half a million books. >> right. >> it's a start, and you know, once again, we just -- what we really need more than anything else is for the government to wake up or the various governments whether it's going to be handled at -- whether you're states person or a federal person, it's got to be dealt with somewhere, and education same thing. i mean, we're not figuring it out right for some reason. >> let me ask you on a personal note, were you a strong reader as a kid? >> i was a strong reader, a very good student, but i was not a big reader. >> when did that -- >> i grew up on comic books. >> did you? >> yeah. >> when did the book thing start? >> the book thing, really -- and i was a good student, but the book thing really happened by accident. i was -- i worked my way through school at a mental hospital

outside of cambridge, massachusetts, and i worked a lot of night shifts, and i read like crazy. it was serious stuff. at that point, i was not interested in commercial fiction, and i read everything i could get my hands on, and then i started scribbling, and i loved it. i just loved writing stories. >> and for the kids out here, i'm sure a lot of them are wondering, i'll try to ask the questions, and then we'll turn it over to the audience, but of all the characters, which one do you think you're most like? ray or max or alex cross? >> i think i'm most like alex. we're both african-american -- [laughter] no, i think there's a sense of family. it's so strong with him. he's very compassionate, and he's a problem solver. i mean, that's -- he's a

character i identify with the most. >> and the movie thing? >> the movie thing? oh, look, you take your shots. i -- my feeling -- interesting thing about the movie is it got really clobbered by a lot of critics, but then they do, you know, polls on people who leave the theater, and it got an a. to give it perspective "cloud atlas" got a c, "flight" got an a-minus. my best friend called up, and he and his wife going to the movies, and said, you know, we really liked it, but i got to tell you, i read the review in the new york norksz, and i was afraid to go. >> right. >> if i was going to write a fair review, i would say it is -- it is a flawed movie that is sillier than it needed to be, but entertaining. >> we'd agree, not with the first part of it, but i found it

entertaining. i'm sure some of you out there did too. here's another sort of question that i thought of. if you could live inside the world of one of your books for a week, which would you choose and how come? >> if i could be in it for a week, guaranteed i could come back, "maximum rise," flying around for a week, i'm there. i don't want the wings full time. the kids are retractable, they could be in the audience, and you wouldn't know it, and then all the sudden -- >> and what's your favorite part of being an author? what's the most amazing thing you've seen or done because you're a writer? >> oh, i don't know. somebody said you're lucky if you find something you like to do in life, it's true, it's not

the easiest thing, and it's a miracle if somebody pays you to do it. are you going to retire? you don't retire from play, you know? it's -- i don't work for a living. play for a living. >> well, we're glad that you do. going to throw it open to questions. >> don't be a afraid, come up to the microphone. >> i want kids to come up too. >> we're going to bite, we're like twilight, yes. >> speak into the microphone as well. >> okay. so you made this graphic novel which is cool, and then you did just the regular novels. i really enjoyed it and everything, but my main question is are you going to do another daniel novel or any other graphic novel? is that in the plans or anything? >> i actually started with it as a book series, and the graphic novel came later. i don't know. you know, there's actually -- it's not a daniel x, but there's one that's just, i think it's in the stores now or close to it

called zoo -- check it out if you're in the storement take a peek and see if you like it, but i think it's a cool graphic novel. >> okay, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> hi. >> hi. >> yesterday, we heard a gentleman by the name of michael sandell, and he spoke to us about what money can't buy, the moral value of markets, and he was giving us an example of four people in the country, offering the kids a dollar or two dollars to read a book, and then he asked the the audience how they felt about it, and it was about 50/50 that half of them felt it was a great idea; it was not a good idea at all. i wonder what you thought of the idea. have you read about it?

>> i haven't, but i think creativity is what's needed to get kids reading. there's a woman i read about, a teacher in texas, and she has a bubba, a book club for boys, and they read gross books. they love it. they call themselves bubbas, and they make fun of themselves. >> she doesn't pay them? >> no, she doesn't. i hope that's the last thing you'd have to do, but, you know, i can't say i'm against it, but maybe there's more imaginative ways. >> okay. >> the key is not really that they read a book. the key is that they build a habit so that they continue to read stuff. it's just not enough to get them to read one book. >> thank you. >> i have two questions, actually. first one what inspired you to write "suzanne's diary"? >> what inspired me is my wife

takes a gazillion pictures -- there's one -- and we have these books full of pictures of jack, you know, when he was a baby and whatever, and i was staring at it, and, you know, we were older parents, and it struck me that it would be -- it would be sad one day for jack to be, you know, reading or looking at this book of all the pictures, and we were not around anymore, and then for some reason, it hit me how devastating it would be if we were looking at the pictures, and he was not around, and that's where the book came around. >> also, too, i know i'm from west palm beach, and i know you've spoken at several at the schools. how do we get you? >> little ground. contact them. i am doing some middle school stuff up in west palm beach now,

jfk, and, yeah. >> actually, one of my students at school met you at jfk, she's in the school i work in now. i work in a library. >> okay, all right. one of the things -- a school of the arts there, i saw their holiday concert one year, it was mind boggling, the music, and we're actually going to do it at the crowder center this year. we paid to have it in there. that's going to be spectacular. >> yes, ma'am, yes, sir, somebody. yep? hi. >> is the book middle school -- >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> bring the microphone down. >> a wimpy kids t-shirt on. >> why -- [inaudible] >> i'm not going -- let's not get into this because this is

hard to imagine or believe, but not everybody in the room has actually read the book yet. [laughter] i don't want to give away stuff. are you going to be around at the book signing? >> yeah. >> okay. we'll talk about it privately. >> okay. [laughter] >> also -- also -- >> don't give away what happens in the book. okay. >> i'll have to strangle you. [laughter] not really. >> also, when did you first write your first book, and what was it? >> i wrote the first book -- i published it when i was 26, about ten years ago -- [laughter] it was called the thomas number -- i was very lucky. it was turned down by 31 publishers, and then is won an edgar for best mystery. come see my privately, that's two -- >> also -- >> okay. are you telling the ending

again? we'll talk you and me, me and you. >> i think we have a journalist, like a white house correspondent. >> all right. [applause] >> i'm asking the question for my girlfriend who is very shy. >> okay. >> what she'd like to know what is the process of getting like a story she's written to be published, what would it be like? >> it's. so long since i went through that, i don't really have -- there are books in the library, like, -- >> getting published, there's a book called "getting published" -- >> cleverly titled. that's a place to start. i tell you one thing is the second part of it is you finish the story or book, start another one. start another one. just keep doing them. you get better and better and belter, and pick up a book like